1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of houseware utensils and more particularly to a beverage container holder that is adaptable for supporting a container of liquid on a variety of surfaces and maintaining the beverage in a cold state or a hot state, depending upon the desires of the user, as well as a process for manufacturing it that reduces overall costs and makes shipment cheaper and more efficient.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Beverage container holders are not new. U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,374 describes a beverage container holder that is insulated and contains a refrigerant for use in maintaining soft drinks or other beverages in a chilled state. Non-tipping beverage container holders also are not new. U.S. Pat. No. 3,028,702 discloses a support for a cup-like container such as a drinking glass having a pouch depending therefrom containing weighted pellets for stabilizing the drinking container when placed on a bumpy or odd-angled surface.
Neither of these prior art devices, however, has the ability to maintain a beverage in a cold state or alternatively in a hot state and support the container on a bumpy or odd-angled surface. There are those who would rather drink a hot beverage, such as coffee, than a cold beverage, such as beer, and the prior art has not seen fit to provide these persons with a holder that could be used in both instances.
Even more of a problem, however, is the fact that drinking container holders, such as the one shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,028,702, have cost disadvantages as well. Specifically, the weight of the pellets in the holder means that shipping them from the manufacturing plant to the ultimate consumer involves the shipping of dead weight which raises the shipping price and thus the total cost of the device. Further, in packaging such devices, they cannot be stacked close together as the pouch extends beyond the edges of the holder receptacle and thus few of them may be packed in a carton for shipment because of this large size. Further, the holders cannot be stacked too high in the shipping carton or the cartons too high upon each other without the weight of the pelletized material becoming a factor that may cause crushing of the shipping carton or the beverage container holder around which the pouch is attached. All of these disadvantages, therefore, make these sort of non-tipping drinking container holders highly expensive as well as utilizable for only the beverages that are desired to stay cool during consumption.